Erika Christensen as 'Julia Braverman-Graham' in Parenthood(Courtesy of NBC)

Parenthood fans have always looked at Joel Graham (Sam Jaeger) and Julia Braverman-Graham’s (Erika Christensen) relationship as that show’s rock. They had their problems from time to time, like any couple, but their bond was unshakeable. Even through the few rough patches, they had each other’s backs and made the very best of it. This season, however, that rock has been slowly crumbling and it all comes to a head when Parenthood returns tonight at 10 PM on NBC. The episode is a doozy, especially for Joel and Julia, and one in which the things that happen may take a long time to set straight. Parade sat down with Parenthood star Erika Christensen to discuss Julia’s toughest year yet, her bond with co-star Sam Jaeger, where the show is going, and her love of social media.

Your character has been through a lot of ups and downs on this show. Has this season been the toughest for you as an actor so far?Absolutely. Personally, it’s been the toughest. One major difference is that Joel and Julia have been a united front throughout the entire adoption issue and the surrogate deal with Zoey and then Victor. They’ve always had each other. And now, for the first time, really not being on the same page has been so hard for Sam [Jaeger] and me. We’ve discovered how incredibly personally invested we are in these characters, because we’ve been fighting this thing every step of the way.

So you and Sam are practically married at this point.Yeah, it’s been five years. Give us a couple more and it’s common law. [Laughs] It’s been really rough on us this year.

It’s pretty crazy how it translates to real life.Yeah, the really cool thing is that now that we have the full twenty-two episode season, we’ve been able to take it slow and not accelerate it artificially for TV. We’ve let it slowly play out as they’re struggling with it.

Erika Christensen as 'Julia Braverman-Graham' in Parenthood(Courtesy of NBC)

Do you think Joel and Julia are tough enough, and love each other enough, to ultimately get through this?Ultimately, I do. They’ve got ten years of a loving relationship under their belts and, in the interest of their children and everything, I think they can. It’s just such an entirely new situation. Every aspect of their lives is new. Julia not working and Joel working. Victor. They’re in a whole new place and they haven’t had time to properly adjust to it. I think that’s really what this is—their adjustment to their new situation. It’s just really rough.

If they do get through this, do you think they can get back to the same old couple or is there a new status quo?That I don’t know. I think it will inform their relationship from here on out, assuming that they make it, but not in a bad way necessarily. Maybe in one of those “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” ways. As long as they fully regain each other’s trust. That’s the only thing that’s at risk at this point. You can’t have a relationship at all if you don’t trust each other. If they get that back, then everything else can build from there, even if they rebuild it in a new way.

There are a lot of people out there who watch Parenthood and see Joel and Julia as this unbreakable couple. Does that make you feel a certain responsibility with this storyline?In a way, yes. Looking at it more broadly, in making movies and TV shows, [either] you hold the mirror up to every problem that we go through in humankind [or] then there’s the somewhat aspirational side of things. I think that both are great, but I’m always kind of drawn to the slightly more aspirational side of things. Joel and Julia are similar to the couple that Jason [Katims] created (and the actors created) with Coach and Tami Taylor [on Friday Night Lights]. They fight and everything, but they treat each other so well. You can tell that they’re real people and they’ll talk through whatever comes up and they’ll be honest with each other, even when it’s hard. I think that’s not impossible in real life at all, so it’s nice to see that reflected.

What was your original reaction when Jason told you that this is where Julia would be going?I actually had no concept of how brutal it was going to be. The seed of this thing is the problem with Joel and Julia. It’s not, “Oh, look. Here’s a handsome, distracting face.” So I kind of misunderstood. I assumed it would be more like, “Oh, there’s this flirtation thing and it’s kind of fun and sexy for the audience and fun and sexy for Julia and that will be great.” And then, just the way the groundwork was laid, it was not great. It was really brutal and kind of like a slow-motion car wreck.

It’s almost like David Denman’s character is just a victim of your relationship.Yeah, he is. If Joel and Julia were not in the circumstances that they were in, then Ed Brooks would never have been drawn into the whole thing.

How has Julia changed through the years and how have you, as an actor and a person, changed in that same timeframe?That’s such a cool question because it’s an idea that intrigued me from the beginning of doing a TV show. How do you and this character live these parallel lives and both grow and change over a period of time? Both of us have changed a lot. Julia, of course, doesn’t do well with compromise and never has. She’s softened a bit—a lot, actually—over the years. The whole being at home thing, I don’t know if that’s really been a change in her, but it’s a side that you really didn’t get to see before. She’s so uncomfortable, still, in the home life. As for me, I don’t really know how to articulate how much I’ve changed, but I have. It’s kind of an oversimplified way to look at it but, at the very least, I’ve gone from my mid-twenties to my early-thirties. I’m in a stable relationship for the first time in my life. It seems like a very big difference between me then and me now.

Sam Jaeger as 'Joel Graham' in Parenthood(Courtesy of NBC)

What can you tell us about the second half of the season and what’s going to happen with Julia?Joelia? [Laughs] As things go, I do believe, in real life, things are going to get worse before they get better. Without saying exactly how things are going to turn out for the entire season, Jason has led us to believe that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for these two.

What do we have to do to get Jason to bring Zoey (Rosa Salazar) back?Oh my God. I’ve tried! I don’t know. Let’s make a petition! I’m with you on this one thousand percent. She’s fantastic. She’s a lovely person. She’s one of my good friends and has been ever since we got to work together. I think it would be so great for the audience that’s watched for that long. It would be so cool to see this fork in the road that these two characters took, and where they both are now. It would be cool to see each other’s viewpoint on each other’s lives and give it some perspective. It doesn’t have to be huge. It would just be really, really cool to have something.

You’re really active on Twitter and Instagram, posting some really cool stuff. What is it about social media that you dig so much?It’s really pretty special. It’s bizarre and so surreal sometimes, but I really love, first and foremost, just keeping in touch with my friends because you feel so connected. As far as fans go, I really am blown away by people saying, “Oh, I just saw you grocery shopping,” which may seem creepy, but it’s actually not. Then the people writing from Italy and Sweden and wherever else in the world. The fact that it actually goes straight to me without encroaching upon my privacy. It’s of my own volition. It’s not my phone number or my email, but it’s my Twitter account where I’m willing to just be there. And all the other people that are way more famous than me that I get to interact with. That’s awesome. It’s a really fascinating way to have personal contact in a way that’s still protected and safe. I’m a huge advocate of all of it.

AMG/Parade Digital

Connect With Us

More from AMG/Parade

Our partners

Your use of this website constitutes and manifests your acceptance
of our User Agreement,
Privacy Policy,
Cookie Notification,
and awareness of the California Privacy Rights.
Pursuant to U.S. Copyright law, as well as other applicable federal
and state laws, the content on this website may not be reproduced,
distributed, displayed, transmitted, cached, or otherwise used,
without the prior, express, and written permission of Athlon Media Group.
Ad Choices